Just a reminder that recycling is a lie, and that pretty much anywhere in the world 90% of plastic just ends up in the landfill regardless of whether or not you properly sorted into recycling. The cost of sorting, processing, and then reusing the plastic is more expensive than simply using new plastic so it’s not profitable. And the vast majority of cardboard is on usable due to the different types of dyes used to put logos colors Etc on it or is otherwise contaminated on its way to the recycling facility
Pretty much the only materials actually for real reused and recycled is glass and metals like aluminum and steel
Germany has a recycling rate for PET bottles of 94.8%, 45% for general plastic packaging. It’s profitable because if you sell stuff in plastic packaging you’re forced to pay for the recycling. As a consumer you don’t pay for having those yellow bags and bins collected, which means that if you separate all the packaging and put it in there you get to pay less for your other bin. As a producer, if you’re switching your packaging to something that’s easier to recycle, you pay less into the scheme and either lower prices to sell more product or pocket the difference. Our Greens love to solve shit by strategically shifting around market incentives: When the producer has to pay the bill the market failure suddenly vanishes.
Glass OTOH is a problem because even small contaminations can mess up a whole batch, and the process is energy-intensive in the first place. Crushed glass makes very good aggregate for concrete, though.
As to cardboard: Sort what you can, the rest goes into industrial composting. Left-over plastic gets burned, which actually isn’t that bad – the issue isn’t the burning (they’ve got proper filters and everything) but that the plastic isn’t sourced from renewable sources. Certainly more sensible even in its current state than burning oil while putting the plastic in a landfill.
Just a reminder that recycling is a lie, and that pretty much anywhere in the world 90% of plastic just ends up in the landfill regardless of whether or not you properly sorted into recycling. The cost of sorting, processing, and then reusing the plastic is more expensive than simply using new plastic so it’s not profitable. And the vast majority of cardboard is on usable due to the different types of dyes used to put logos colors Etc on it or is otherwise contaminated on its way to the recycling facility
Pretty much the only materials actually for real reused and recycled is glass and metals like aluminum and steel
Germany has a recycling rate for PET bottles of 94.8%, 45% for general plastic packaging. It’s profitable because if you sell stuff in plastic packaging you’re forced to pay for the recycling. As a consumer you don’t pay for having those yellow bags and bins collected, which means that if you separate all the packaging and put it in there you get to pay less for your other bin. As a producer, if you’re switching your packaging to something that’s easier to recycle, you pay less into the scheme and either lower prices to sell more product or pocket the difference. Our Greens love to solve shit by strategically shifting around market incentives: When the producer has to pay the bill the market failure suddenly vanishes.
Glass OTOH is a problem because even small contaminations can mess up a whole batch, and the process is energy-intensive in the first place. Crushed glass makes very good aggregate for concrete, though.
As to cardboard: Sort what you can, the rest goes into industrial composting. Left-over plastic gets burned, which actually isn’t that bad – the issue isn’t the burning (they’ve got proper filters and everything) but that the plastic isn’t sourced from renewable sources. Certainly more sensible even in its current state than burning oil while putting the plastic in a landfill.